Hit Send Too Soon

I’ve been waiting to see what happens when Generation Selfie and the Working Establishment collide. This story was inevitable.

A 23-year-old Chicago resident landed a job at a St. Charles, Ill. company in August. After accepting the offer, he mistakenly sent two naked selfies over the course of three days to the human resources manager who offered him the position.

According to reports, immediately upon receipt, the HR manager phoned the police. And rescinded the offer of employment.

The speed of our communication has increased exponentially, and we’re communicating more often from a tiny screen (usually while doing something else, like driving.) It’s easy to mix up business and professional activities with what I’ll call (euphemistically) leisure activities. But it’s the speed that is really the problem.

Yesterday I received three emails within 40 minutes or so. One announced an event. The next one, 15 minutes later, corrected the event. The third cancelled the event, with apologies for all the changes. I could imagine the frustration the sender felt. A few extra minutes for checking and rechecking can save you that kind of frenzied frustration. The same afternoon, I received a daily email push from a publication with a major typo in a headline.

I propose an addition to the texticon: HSTS (Hit Send Too Soon.)

Email is full of peril for jobseekers. It’s often sent form a mobile device and feels casual, so it’s seldom checked as thoroughly as it should be. I’ve seen jobseeker communication that is full of typos and empty of punctuation.

“iam a recent college graduate and interested in speaking 2 u about a job.” (actual quote)